Swimming appliance



L. F. $NAPP.

* SWIMMING APPLIANCE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV.B. 1921.

1,480,600. Patented Oct. 3, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1- lnvenTor. Leroy F. S n 01 p p b ztwwgw ATTys.

L. F. SNAPP.

SWIMMING APPLIANCE. APPLICATION FILED NOV.8, 1921.

Patented Oct. 3, 1922.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

tnvenToT Leroy F Snclpp M .L 1. e c a Jet. a, tilde LEE-BY FLETCHERSNAPLP, 03E MALIDEN, liIASSACHUSETTS.

SVJIMIEIETG- APPLIANCE.

Application filed November 8, 1921.

T all 20 7mm it may concern:

Be it known that l, Leno; FLETCHER filrn-xrr, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and resident of Maiden, county. of ll-liddlesei; State oflilassachusetts, have. invented an Improvement in Swimming Appliances,of which the following description, in connection with the accompanyingdrawing, is a specification, like characters on the draw- .representinglike parts.

'llhis invention relates to swimming appliances and has for its objectto provide a novel swimming appliance comprising two wings adapted to beattached to the fore arm of a person and each arranged to occupy a planeextending longitudinally of the arm, said wings being foldable in the.plane which they occupy and arranged sothat when the swimmer moves hisarm tor-ward for the forward reach the wings will automatically foldwhile when he moves his arm back ward for the propelling stroke thewings will automatically open out and thus. afford resistance to thewater.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved swimmingappliance of this type which is so constructed that when it is folded itoccupies a position close to the fore arm directly back of the palm ofthe hand and does not increase the resistance to the movement of thearms forwardly through the water.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved swimmingappliance in which the web portion which provides the resistance surfaceis removable from .the supporting frame so that if it becomes damaged itcan be readily removed and a new one placed thereon.

(Ether objects of the invention are to improve generally swimmingappliances of this sort all. as will be more fully hereinafter setforth.

To. order to give an understanding of the in i'eiiti on I haveillustrated. in the drawings.

a selected embodiment thereof which will now be described after whichthenovel features will be pointed out in the appended claims. i

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a view of my improved swimming appliance showing it applied tothe arm.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged section onthe line 2-2, Fig. 1. Y

Fig. 3 is a view of the web portion removed.

Serial No. 513,704..

My improved device comprises twowings indicated generally at 1 andadapted to be secured. to opposite sides of the fore arm 20f swimmer,each wing occupying aplane extending longitudinally of the arm.Preferably the two wings will occupy the same plane but be situated onopposite sides of the fore arm. Each wing is foldable in the plane itoccupies and is constructedsoth-at when the swimmer moves his armsforwardly through the water for the forward reach the wings will beautomatically folded against the fore arm thus reducing the resistance,while when the arm is given a backward propolling motion the wings willbe opened out thereby giving a greatly increased resisting surface. Eachwing comprises a foldable frame having a web attachedthereto to form theresistance surface. Each frame comprises the twolongitudinally-extending members 8 and 4 which are pivotally connectedtogether by struts or braces 5 so that they may be opened away from eachother as shown in full lines Fig. 1 or may be folded together as shownin dotted lines F 1. The struts or braces 5 are pivoted to thelongitudinal member 3 at 6 and to the longitudinal member 4: at 7. Theweb is indicated at 8 and it may be of any suitable sheet material whichcan be readily folded. such for instance as cloth or rubber. gl he web 8is preferably rhomboidal in shape and is stifiened at its longitudinaledges by means of asuitable stilfening wire 9 which may be attached tothe web in any suitable way. The web 8 is also provided with eyelets 10at its ends.

This; web is detachably attached to the folding frame, one stiffenededge ofthe web being secured to each of the longitudinal members of theframe.

The web may be attached to the frame in any suitabl way withoutdeparting from the invention. Where the members 3 and 4 of the frame aremade of sheet metal I may backwardly.

frameby striking up from the sheet metal pairs of cars 11. The ears ofeach pair being adapted to receive the reinforced edge 9 of the webbetween them as shown in Fig. 6. When the web has been inserted betweenthe ears then one of the ears may be bent around the web slightly, asshown in Fig. 2, thus holding the web in place.

The frame is provided at one end with a single reinforcing arm 12 whichis pivoted to the inner longitudinal member 3 of the frame at 6 and thisarm 12 carries at its end a stud 13 adapted to enter one of the eyelets10. At the other end of the frame the two members 8 and 4 are connectedby a jointed link comprising the two parts 1 1 and 15 pivotallyconnected together at 16 by a knuckle joint which is straightened whenthe wing is opened out but which breaks inwardly when the frame isfolded. The member 15 of this jointed brace is pivoted at 17 to theinner longitudinal member at 3. The pivotal connection 16 is preferablyin the form of a stud having an expansible head 18 adapted to beinserted through the eyelet 10 as shown in Fig. 9.

The jointed braces 14: and 15 serve to hold the rear edge of the webtaut when the wing is opened, and also serves to guide said edge into anexact fold when the wing is folded.

Means are provided for automatically folding each wing during theforward stroke and for opening the wing during the swimming stroke. Forthis purpose the outer member of each frame 1 at its forward end acurved blade 19 having the inwardlycurved portion 20 at its forward endand the outwardly-curved portion 21 at its rear end. Said member lisalso provided at its rear end with an outwardly-curved blade 22. Whenthe wing is moved forwardly through the water or to the right in Figure1, the resistance of the water against the outer face of the blades 20,21 and 22 will create a force against the member a rearwardly in thedirection of its length and this force will be sufficient to collapsethe frame and fold the wing as shown in dotted lines Fig. 1. When theband. of the arm of the swimmer has reachedits forward position itbegins to move rearwardly for this pro pelling stroke when theresistance of the water against the blades 20. 2t and 22 will exert aforce in the opposite direction or one tending to open the frame intothe full line position.

With this device, therefore, the wings will automatically fold duringthe forward movement of the arms and will be automatically opened whenthe arms begin to move The brace 14, 15 is constructed so that the twoparts will not be quite in line with each other when the wing is openedand therefore this element serves to brace the wine which rises notprevent its automatili 4! 4. l .i f carry lolding during the loldingstroke.

lit will be noted that the members 3 are secured to the fore armdirectly back of the hand and the construction is such that 1 n L}; 7".J5 l 1 1 w loll b it wings are 10 c ed ey ne CLOSB y against the forearm and in the rear of the hand which 18 wider than the wrist so thatthe folded wings do not occupy any greater width than the hand and,therefore,

they offer no resistance to the forward movement of the arm to thewater.

I have provided herein a construction wherein when the frame iscollapsed the arm 12 will be positively swung backwardly to a pointwhere it will not interfere with the inward movement of the longitudinalmember 4i. Figs. 1 and 5 show a construction for this purpose. The brace5 is pro-- vided with a lateral projection or finger 2 1 which isadapted to engage a shoulder 23 on the arm 12 so that when the brace 5swings rearwardly during the folding of the frame the projection 24-will operate against the shoulder 23 and thus fold the arm 12. A similarconstruction is provided between the rear brace 5 and the member 1 ofthe jointed brace. In this construction said rear brace 5 has aprojeetion25 thereon adapted to engage the projection 26 on the section1 1 so that when the brace 5 begins to swing backwardly durme; thefolding operation the member 14L will be given a similar movement thusinsuring that the jointed brace will be properly folded.

The device may be attached to the arm in any suitable way withoutdeparting from the invention. One way is herein shown wherein the deviceis secured to a cuff 27 which may be attached to the wrist or arm by asuitable lacing 28. The inner longi tudinal member 3 of each wing isshown as having a wire loop 29 rigidly secured thereto either by beingsoldered or riveted thereto. The cuff 27 has a two-wire attaching member30 secured thereto and these attaching members are fastened at theirends to the loop 29 as shown at 31. Any other suitable way of securingthe parts to the wrist may be used, however, without departing from theinvention.

I claim:

1. In a swimming appliance, the combination with two wings, of means toattach said wings to the fore arm of a swimmer, each wing occupying aplane extending longitudinally of the arm and being foldable in saidplane.

2. In a swimming appliance, the combination with two wings, of means toattach said wings to the fore arm of a swimmer, each wing occupying aplane extendin longitudinally of the arm and being fo dable in saidplane, and means carried by each wing to cause it to fold during theforward movement of the arm. and open out during the rearward movementthereof.

3. In a swimming appliance, the combination with two wings, of means forattaching said wings to the fore arms, each wing occupying a planeextending longitudinally of the arm, and comprising a frame foldable insaid plane against the arm, and a flexible web secured to the frame4:.11'1 a swimming appliance, the combination with two wings, of meansfor attaching said wings to the fore arms, each wing occupying a planeextending longitudinally of the arm, and comprising a frame foldable insaid plane against the arm, and a flexible web detachably secured to theframe.

5. In a swimming appliance comprising a wing adapted to be attached tothe fore arm of a swimmer and occupying a plane extending longitudinallyof the arm, said wing comprising a foldable frame formed of twolongitudinal members and braces pivotally connecting said members,whereby they may be folded together or opened away from each other, anda sheet of flexible material detachably secured to the frame andconstituting a resistance surface.

6. In a swimming appliance comprising a wing adapted to be attached tothe fore arm of a swimmer and occupying a plane extending longitudinallyof the arm, said wing comprising a foldable frame formed of twolongitudinal members and braces pivotally connecting said members,whereby they may be folded together or opened away from each other, anda sheet of flexible material detachably secured to the frame andconstituting a resistance surface, an outer longitudinal member of theframe having blades at each end constructed to cause the frame to foldwhen the wing is moved forwardly through the water and to be opened outwhen the wing is moved rearwardly through the water.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

L. FLETCHER SNAPP.

